- Source
- Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.31.1-6.31.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Following Histiaeus' death, the Persian fleet captures the islands of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos, rounding up the inhabitants using a 'netting' technique, which they do not apply to mainland cities.
τὰ μὲν περὶ Ἱστιαῖον οὕτω ἔσχε. ὁ δὲ ναυτικὸς στρατὸς ὁ Περσέων χειμερίσας περὶ Μίλητον, τῷ δευτέρῳ ἔτεϊ ὡς ἀνέπλωσε, αἱρέει εὐπετέως τὰς νήσους τὰς πρὸς τῇ ἠπείρῳ κειμένας, Χίον καὶ Λέσβον καὶ Τένεδον. ὅκως δὲ λάβοι τινὰ τῶν νήσων,1 ὡς ἑκάστην αἱρέοντες οἱ βάρβαροι ἐσαγήνευον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους.
Such was the outcome of the affairs concerning Histiaeus. As for the Persian fleet, after wintering around Miletus, when they put to sea in the second year, they easily captured the islands lying near the mainland: Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. Whenever they took any of these islands, the barbarians netted the inhabitants as they captured each one.
σαγηνεύουσι δὲ τόνδε τὸν τρόπον· ἀνὴρ ἀνδρὸς ἁψάμενος τῆς χειρὸς ἐκ θαλάσσης τῆς βορηίης ἐπὶ τὴν νοτίην διήκουσι,2 καὶ ἔπειτα διὰ πάσης τῆς νήσου διέρχονται ἐκθηρεύοντες τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. αἵρεον δὲ καὶ τὰς ἐν τῇ ἠπείρῳ πόλιας τὰς Ἰάδας κατὰ ταὐτά, πλὴν οὐκ ἐσαγήνευον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· οὐ γὰρ οἷά τʼ ἦν.3
They net them in the following manner: linking hand in hand, man to man, they stretch from the northern sea to the southern, and then they march through the entire island, hunting the people down. They also captured the Ionian cities on the mainland in the same way, except they did not net the inhabitants; for indeed, that was impossible.
- 6.31.1ὅκως δὲ λάβοι τινὰ τῶν νήσων
The conjunction ὅκως (the Ionic form of ὅπως) is used here with the optative (λάβοι) to denote a general temporal condition expressing repeated action in past time ('whenever they captured any of the islands').
- 6.31.2ἀνὴρ ἀνδρὸς ἁψάμενος τῆς χειρὸς ἐκ θαλάσσης τῆς βορηίης ἐπὶ τὴν νοτίην διήκουσι
The singular nominative participle ἁψάμενος describes the action of individual men, while the main verb is in the plural (διήκουσι). This is an example of construction according to sense (schema style), where the singular subject 'man' transitions to a collective plural 'they stretch'.
- 6.31.2οὐ γὰρ οἷά τʼ ἦν
The impersonal use of the idiom οἷός τέ εἰμι ('to be able, possible') in the neuter plural (οἷά τε ἦν) with the negative particle, meaning 'for it was not possible'. An infinitive such as σαγηνεύειν ('to net') is understood.